Grow Your Own Spinach

A Year-Round Superfood for the Garden

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a highly nutritious, cool-season crop that’s perfect for UK gardens and can be adapted for container growing too. Spinach originated in western Asia and made its way to Europe sometime in the Middle Ages. Today, it’s celebrated for being rich in vitamins A, C, and K, as well as folate, iron, magnesium, and calcium—making it a nutritious addition to the veg patch. Its fast growth, versatility in the kitchen, and potential for multiple seasonal harvests make spinach a must for regular planting.

Of all the varieties, perpetual spinach (Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla), which is technically a type of leaf beet or chard, is especially useful due to its extended harvesting window and resilience.

There are several types of spinach you might like to explore:

• Savoy spinach has thick, deeply crinkled dark green leaves, is quite cold-hardy with a robust flavour. Try ‘bloomsdale’ (which gives high yields) or ‘Kolibri’ (F1) technically a semi-savoy but known for it all season properties.

• Flat-leaf spinach grows smoother, broad leaves, ideal for baby spinach and often used in shop bought mixed salad bags. Try ‘Bordeaux’ with its small red veins it looks very fancy in a salad.
• Perpetual spinach, grows tall like chard, with noticeable stems and large, glossy green leaves. It can reach up to 30–45 cm (12–18 inches) in height and continues producing over many months when picked regularly.

Spinach likes a cooler environment and will often bolt quickly in summer, so go for bolt hardy varieties. Seeds germinate best between 7°C and 24°C (45°F–75°F), with the sweet spot being around 15–18°C (59–65°F). For growing on, spinach thrives in daytime temperatures of 10–20°C (50–68°F). In the UK, timing your sowing is key:

Whether direct-sown or started in module trays, spinach seeds are easy to work with as they are hard, and knobbly—soaking them for a few hours before planting tends to improves germination. If I’m honest I rarely soak them before sowing (I’m a very lazy gardener) but on the occasions I have soaked them I do notice a marked improvement in germination.

Sow each seed about 1.5 cm (½ inch) deep in fertile, well-draining soil. If using modules, transplant outdoors when seedlings have at least two true leaves (4–6 weeks old). Space plants 15–20 cm (6–8 inches) apart for full-size leaves, or sow closer for baby leaf production. Keep soil consistently moist—but not too soggy. Spinach prefers full sun in cooler months and part shade in summer. Indoors or in small gardens, perpetual spinach does well in large pots (minimum 30 cm/12 in deep) with rich compost and regular watering.

Spinach usually germinates in about 7–14 days and reaches harvest size in about 6–8 weeks. Baby spinach can be harvested when leaves are 5–7 cm (2–3 inches) long, while full-grown perpetual spinach can be picked from around 8 weeks onwards. Cut and come again I find is the best way to promote further growth so you will want a good few spinach plants around so as not to strip one plant entirely. Keep in mind that it cooks down a lot, so what looks like a large harvest may not translate in volume to your plate.

Perpetual spinach forms large leaves on upright stalks, and you can expect to be harvesting over 6–8 month period, especially if you remove older outer leaves regularly and keep feeding with organic liquid fertiliser (a comfrey tea will do nicely). For supermarket-style baby spinach, sow seeds densely and harvest on mass when the plants are young and tender. The ‘Bordeaux’ as mentioned above is particularly good for young baby leaves.

While relatively easy to grow, spinach does have its share of pests – what plant doesn’t:

• Slugs and snails are common—use beer traps or copper tape around pots, growing under nets. You may not eliminating them all but do everything you can to limit the damage they can cause.
• Leaf miners burrow into leaves—remove affected foliage promptly and dispose of it separately from your compost bin. Nip this in the bud early and you should be able to control the problem.
• Downy mildew thrives in damp conditions—ensure good airflow and avoid overhead watering. It’s good practice to water most plants at the base and spinach is no different.
• Aphids can cluster on young leaves—use water sprays or neem oil. Again fine netting may help.

Whether you’ve got a sunny corner, a balcony with pots, or a full garden bed, spinach—particularly perpetual spinach—offers an easy, low-maintenance, high-reward crop. Grow it once and you’ll wonder why you ever bought bagged spinach again.

Let me know in the comments what spinach varieties you grow and how you like to use it in the kitchen.

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